Had a Raid failure...anyone else been down this scary road? - GoFuckYourself.com

bronco67 · 07-16-2010, 08:41 AM

I had a WD external drive that caused my computer not to boot(found out later). Perplexed, I did a Windows repair, which caused my 2 separate Windows dynamic disk Raids(2 drives each) to be marked as invalid in disk manager. One of the Raids was backed up, with a couple things missing, but the other one will be totally lost.

I've had both raids evaluated by a pro, and its going to cost $1300 and $1700 to get the data back. The data is there, its just that the disks will no longer be recognized as raid drives by Windows.

Do I have any options with some good software that can rebuild these drives. I tried one called Restorer Ultimate with no luck...maybe there's a better option out there. Please help save me $3000. Someone. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

I swear I will never do a raid again. I just bought a 2 x2TB sata6 to do the same job.

Loch · 07-16-2010, 09:02 AM

Raids are hard to restore to be honest with you
We just had a 13TB raid fail as well

We were lucky that it failed slowly so could recover all the data before if died completely.
Raids are great but only if you mirror them.

Amputate Your Head · 07-16-2010, 09:04 AM

I used to do mirror raid, but I had one disk fail about a year ago and the restore took 4 days. Much faster to just keep them non-raid and clone them as needed. The manual restore after failure then is only approx. one day per 1TB disk.

And always have a clone of your primary OS drive. Always.

grumpy · 07-16-2010, 09:08 AM

you cant go wrong with raid 5 and 5 disks installed, minimum amount of disks 3

bronco67 · 07-16-2010, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grumpy

you cant go wrong with raid 5 and 5 disks installed, minimum amount of disks 3

Well, it wasn't really the Raid's fault. It was Windows losing its connection with the Raid in disk manager. If I could just re-initialize the disks, everything would be great.

GrouchyAdmin · 07-16-2010, 09:58 AM

If your RAID is more software than hardware, it's worth precisely what you (haven't) paid for it.

I have shit failing and alerts every few days. Just swap out the drive, wait for it to rebuild (shit will be slow), and all's good with the world.

For consume grade, you can't go wrong with 3ware.

07-16-2010, 08:41 AM	#1
bronco67 Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 29,032	Had a Raid failure...anyone else been down this scary road? I had a WD external drive that caused my computer not to boot(found out later). Perplexed, I did a Windows repair, which caused my 2 separate Windows dynamic disk Raids(2 drives each) to be marked as invalid in disk manager. One of the Raids was backed up, with a couple things missing, but the other one will be totally lost. I've had both raids evaluated by a pro, and its going to cost $1300 and $1700 to get the data back. The data is there, its just that the disks will no longer be recognized as raid drives by Windows. Do I have any options with some good software that can rebuild these drives. I tried one called Restorer Ultimate with no luck...maybe there's a better option out there. Please help save me $3000. Someone. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. I swear I will never do a raid again. I just bought a 2 x2TB sata6 to do the same job. __________________

07-16-2010, 09:02 AM	#2
Loch Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 7,674	Raids are hard to restore to be honest with you We just had a 13TB raid fail as well We were lucky that it failed slowly so could recover all the data before if died completely. Raids are great but only if you mirror them. __________________ Contact us for Beta store access (4000 HD/SD productions) - Editing - Encoding/Post production ICQ - 277 862 930 E-mail casper /@/ cool-content.com

07-16-2010, 09:08 AM	#4
grumpy Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Holland Posts: 9,870	you cant go wrong with raid 5 and 5 disks installed, minimum amount of disks 3 __________________ Don't let greediness blur your vision \| You gotta let some shit slide icq - 441-456-888

07-16-2010, 09:58 AM	#6
GrouchyAdmin Now choke yourself! Industry Role: Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 12,085	If your RAID is more software than hardware, it's worth precisely what you (haven't) paid for it. I have shit failing and alerts every few days. Just swap out the drive, wait for it to rebuild (shit will be slow), and all's good with the world. For consume grade, you can't go wrong with 3ware. __________________ AIM: GrouchyGfy

07-16-2010, 09:04 AM	#3
Amputate Your Head There can be only one Industry Role: Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Somewhere else Posts: 39,075	I used to do mirror raid, but I had one disk fail about a year ago and the restore took 4 days. Much faster to just keep them non-raid and clone them as needed. The manual restore after failure then is only approx. one day per 1TB disk. And always have a clone of your primary OS drive. Always.